The Hidden Costs of Solar Photovoltaic Power
Introduction
Despite many optimistic predictions, solar photovoltaic (solar PV) power still represents only a small fraction of the global electricity supply as of 2020. More than two decades of nearexponential growth and investment in solar PV development have taken place, yet the amount of fossil fuels being burned for power is still increasing. [1] This apparent paradox has been attributed to a variety of economic or political issues, but a critically important factor may be missing from the discussion.
All modern technologies are dependent upon the supply of fossil fuels and fossil energy that made them possible. Similarly, every step in the production of solar PV requires an input of fossil fuels – as raw materials, as carbon reductants for silicon smelting, for process heat and power, for transportation, and for balance of system components. Regardless of any intentions, no quantity of banknotes or any number of mandates can yield a single watt of power unless a significant expenditure of raw materials and fossil energy takes place as well.
Therefore, the author of this article invites all interested parties including environmentalists, consumers and policy makers to consider the wider environmental impact, and the great debt of resources that actually must be paid before a PV system can be installed at any utility, workplace, or home. If we wish to recognize the hidden costs of this highly engineered industrial technology, we must first examine the non-renewable reality of the PV manufacturing process itself. To be even more realistic, we must also consider the additional consequences resulting from the fossil-fuel- powered global supply chains that are necessary for the mining, production, and implementation of PV power systems.
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